Community panel gets first-hand look at south-east drainage network

A community panel established to look at future funding options for the south-east drainage system in South Australia has toured some of the key areas of the 2,600-kilometre network.

The panel, which has been given the task of providing recommendations to the State Government regarding the system's ongoing maintenance and management, has met for the first time in Naracoorte.

Panel facilitator Iain Walker, from the New Democracy foundation, said the weekend tours received a pleasing response from participants.

"Even people who have a fair degree of knowledge working in agriculture, a lot of people commented to me how much they knew and expanded their knowledge by actually getting on the ground and seeing the array of infrastructure that's involved," he said.

"We had a really interesting period of being able to take them around the region and actually see the drainage network, hear from a range of speakers nominated by the community and also now to start to take control and nominate the experts that they want to hear from.

"That's what this is about - it's about giving people enough time that they can hear a range of views and not just one or two."

Covering nearly one-third of the continent, in deserts with poor soils, humble Australian spinifex grasses contain nano-sized particles that can amp the performance of a range of everyday items, researcher Nasim Amiralian writes.

Former treasurer Wayne Swan says that real private sector wages have grown by just 1 per cent under the Abbott and Turnbull governments, which he says equates to only one year of growth under the previous Labor government.